This morning I got up and felt the desire to “go away” from our house. We’d settled back in since vacation and now it was time for a little cabin-fever driven play. Today not being a homeschooling day meant we were free until nap time, while I still hoped to spend the lunch time with Matt.

At first the idea was a local park that has farm animals, play equipment and not too much walking. I gave a few friends a call, discovered their full plans, and then rethought about our original plan. If we were not partnering with anyone else, we were free to do whatever. Then the idea popped into my head: muddy water play. The level of grease in Rachael’s hair this morning sealed the deal, clearly bath time was in order for today so why not get the most out of the dirt before returning to the world of clean.

Rachael was all-in, my previous “ew-dirt” toddler now turned into a “dirty can be fun” preschooler. But Abi had her own plans of lying in a pile of play jewelry (can we say uncomfortable?) and wrapping her stuffed duckie in a blanket. VETOED! Abi got over it with a few minutes of consoling and then happily got into a swim diaper and bathing suit. With T-shirts (for extra sun protection), water shoes, a few bath toys, some towels and my camera we were out the door to our adventure.

The girls, having never play in a creek before (dude, they’re small), learned all kinds of things about creeks through hands-on experience. And boy can I tell you, we experienced the creek TO THE FULL. Short of drinking the water intentionally (sorry Abi), we did just about every other little sensory experiment imaginable.

Rachael learned about water currants, floating and sinking objects,

depth of water, mossy rocks being slimy,

and all kinds of other personal experiments like how much water can be splashed by jumping furiously in the water.

Abi enjoyed many dump and fill pleasures with her self-declared recycled cottage cheese container which was a HUGE “no no” in the sharing category. That container was an emotional attachment, a beloved friend not just a selfish moment of “I don’t want you to have it”. No, cottage cheese container was NEEDED  (funny how they attach to things randomly). Rachael was content to play with everything but Abi’s cottage cheese container so no wars were waged creekside. Abi also highly enjoyed kicking and splashing – a must for my mud-inspired baby.

While the girls were a little hesitant at first about the shiftiness of creek rocks, they soon kicked into their regular selves, sitting in the cold water with squeals and ‘do it again’s. In a few minutes their limbs had gone numb in the creek’s shade-covered arctic waters and their focused turned to exploring the water.

We stayed for 45 minutes of bliss, soon-to-be lunch grumbling encouraging our departure. I wondered what people thought as two young children emerged from the “no swimming” lakeside entrance (we walked a little ways back to the creek) fully wrapped in towels and soaking. We looked like rebels, but there were no signs posted in the creek area regarding swimming (probably since the water was um ankle-deep), but my children very nearly swam in that very ankle-deep currant.

A quick towel-drying, change of clothes for the ride back, peanut butter sandwich lunch, bath time and redressing has produced two wonderfully exhausted children and a quiet napping house.

I’d say our adventure was a success for all. =)